Absolutely love this post from Nerd Enterprises,
Excerpt:
So how do you know if your bookkeeper is really great?! How do you know the difference between a bookkeeper who is just ok and one who really knows what (s)he is doing such that you are truly getting value for your money? How do you know if you are getting quality bookkeeping services? There are probably many ways of evaluating this and I am sure that if I ask 5 different people I will get 5 different answers with multiple criteria and there will likely be some crossover in the answers.
The first thing a great bookkeeper should be concerned with when taking on your job is to review a copy of your books and along with that your last filed tax return. When I ask a client’s CPA for their last filed tax return so I can make sure the balance sheet agrees the reaction I get is that I am singing music to their ears. The very fact that I am asking for that tells them that I know what is important. It is also all too frequently an issue. Check your own company’s books right now. Go run the balance sheet for 12/31/xx where ‘xx’ is the last year you filed hopefully 2010 at the latest if not 2011. Then pull out your balance sheet page from your tax return. This does not apply to sole proprietors, only Corporations and LLC’s.
Look at the Cash line:
Does it agree to your balance sheet?
Either way skip down to total Liabilities and Equity. Does that agree?
Does the Equity amount alone agree?
If you answered yes to all of these you are ok.
Now I want to be clear. MOST bookkeepers will not even know what I am talking about here. So imagine if you stumbled on one who did? That is when you know that you have a rare gem and you should hire them right away!! That bookkeeper will save you money on tax prep, guaranteed! You will also turn your CPA or tax preparer into your best friend because I can tell you that this is the first thing they check every year when they go to file your returns. Usually the QB file does not agree to the tax return and they have to go to work making adjustments to get them to agree. It is very likely you aren’t even aware that you are having to pay them for the time spent on doing this, and you are paying a CPA’s rate for this, what should be basic bookkeeping IF THE BOOKKEEPING IS DONE RIGHT!
He’s got some great video tutorials on his site, read more here…
